Mary Brodbeck

“Woodblock prints are impressions on paper made from carved and inked woodblocks. Multi-color prints require separate woodblocks for all the different colors. My prints are made the traditional Japanese way, using water-color pigments and pressing by hand. I learned the traditional methods of Japanese woodblock printmaking in Tokyo under the auspices of a five-month-long Japanese government sponsored fellowship in 1998 and have been dedicated to this process since.

Many have said that my woodblock prints have a message of calm and contemplation. Though for me, it’s hard to separate the medium from the message. Would my art convey the same message if I were to switch to a new medium? Maybe. But the nearly twenty years of studio practice cannot erase the artist that I have become. My medium has not only shaped my message, it has helped to inform me and how to see the world – in its essential shapes, colors and textures.”

Mary Brodbeck was born in Hastings, Michigan in 1958. She graduated from Michigan State University with a BFA in Industrial design in 1982, and worked as an Industrial Designer in the West Michigan furniture industry for a dozen years – many of her designs hold US patents – before shifting to image making in the 1990͛s.